I am not fish allergic, so maybe you all know to watch for this. But I was shocked when I discovered fish gelatin in the ingredients of a granola bar and thought I would post a warning. We were given these granola bars in the States on a flight, so maybe you won't see this in Canada. They were Nabisco Honey Maid Soft Baked Snack Bars in the banana flavour.

It lists the ingredient exactly as "fish gelatin". Maybe the airline has a direct contract with the company to have these bars made for them; would that be why this product is not on their website? Or maybe you were looking at the Canadian site and this is an American product.

I was looking at their american site actually... but it may be a newer product and it's not on there (they only have 2 varieties on the site)... I'll have to see how many companies actually list the fish gelatin as fish gelatin and not simply gelatin

Mylene; that is just is so gross! I know from a friend here that you can have gelatin made from fish but in a granola bar. Is that not like a desert? I am fish/shellfish and other foods. But that is gross!
Soccermom you are very kind to post that though.
Kelly

I'm not allergic to fish or shellfish either, but I'd imagine they use gelatin made from fish to get around religious dietary restrictions. It does sound odd though, but I guess "pork gelatin" would sound odd too.

I do not eat fish because my husband is allergic...but even if I did eat fish...I would not want it in my granola bar!!! That is the most disgusting thing I've heard in a long time. Surely consumer demand, by those who think that fish in their granola bars is gross, will put an end to using fish in such unnecessary places.

ok, I think most people don't know that gelatin is normally animal based... and plain gelatin doesn't taste like anything, so fish gelatin would not taste like fish and most poeple who think fish is disgusting would not know they are eating fish . Most people don't know they are eating anchovies (grooss ) when they eat ceasar salad or worchestershire sauce...

myfreckleface: thanks!!! I haven't researched fish allergies in a couple of years. I did it a lot for many years, reading everything available... but I slowed down... I guess, I'll catch up on some reading...

When I first became ana 2 1/2 yrs ago I was surprised to find out so many foods contained fish/shellfish. One that surprised me was ice-cream. The manager of this particular company said not to eat theirs because it has fish protein in it. He said that they were not given a breakdown of the protein so could not say whether it was just fish protein or fish/shellfish protein which it sometimes can be.

Also when one looks at marshmallows - gelatin is major ingredient. I have sent e-mails and tried phone calls but no one will answer me. May question was and is ------
Is the gelatin in marshmallow, beef, pig or fish? If it is fish is it cold water fish "only" or is it cold water fish' plus shellfish' which research says it can be?

Because of the gelatin issue remaining unanswered I cannot make rice krispie sqs etc. Have tried and tried to get a direct phone number for Knox gelatin so I can make my own marshamallows, but that is a no go.

It needs to be labelled based on the new labeling law in the US! I'm looking for the actual text of the law, but for now:

"Once within the definition of major food allergen, ingredients such as
soy lecithin and fish gelatin would be subject to the provisions of the legislation
regardless of whether they had previously been treated as incidental additives.
For example, foods containing fish gelatin as a carrier would need to list the specific
species of fish either as part of the common or usual name of the ingredient, such as
cod gelatin, or in a statement near the ingredient statement such as Contains
cod."

Yes, I read that the USA has a new law effective this month regarding allergen listing but how does it stand in Canada? What I mean is - In the US they must comply with the countries law but what about their Canadian facilities? Products with head offices in US but are made within Canada - are they governed by the US laws or Canadian laws. Will all their Canadian made products have the labels in accordance with US law or Canadian? If there is a fine line with this subject it can cause some confusion and possible danger for us Canadians when deciding if this US based company product is safe or not.

The answer is quite easy: every product sold in Canada has to comply with canadian laws. Canadian laws requires bilingual labeling and other things that are different from US laws for labeling... so no matter where they are produced, where the Head office is, as soon as they are sold in Canada, they have to comply with canadian laws!

Canada is currently working on a similar law, but I wouldn't expect it before at least next year from what I've seen (they are close, but it always takes a long time )

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